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And Finally ... Short-sighted McCreevy to sidestep lynch mob

THE wailing and gnashing of teeth that accompanied publication of the government’s financial returns for August was a sharp reminder that summer is well and truly over. Charlie McCreevy’s enemies in the media are rounding up the posse and stretching the rope in anticipation of a lynching, but the finance minister won’t be hung out to dry that easily.

The mob is pointing to the €1.84 billion turnaround in the accounts which have gone from a €950m surplus a year ago to a €890m deficit. The slowdown in tax receipts is being cited as evidence that McCreevy is a busted flush. That, as Michael O’Leary would say, is bolloxology. In the first place, those commentators bemoaning the fact that punters are reining in non-essential expenditure and depressing the overall tax take are the same people who have been claiming almost daily that the economy is banjaxed. Coincidence? Second, the tax